Vietnam internet dissident trial opens
The trial of a Vietnamese dissident accused of circulating documents critical of the government is to due to open on Friday.
Le Chi Quang, a 32-year-old lawyer, was arrested and detained in February after being accused of posting several essays on the internet which condemned the Vietnamese Government for its land and sea border agreements with China.
If found guilty he could face up to 12 years in prison.
The trial is to be held in Hanoi, and foreign press have been banned from covering the trial, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Internet crackdown
Media monitoring organisation Committee To Protect Journalists said that Mr Quang was to be charged under Article 88 of Vietnam's Criminal Code which banned the dissemination of anti-government information, French news agency AFP reported.
The organisation said the charge sheet also referred to Mr Quang's praising of fellow well-known dissidents Nguyen Thanh Giang and Vu Cao Quan as evidence of his attempts to undermine the state.
Another prominent Vietnamese writer, Nguyen Vu Binh, was arrested in September, also for writing critical essays on the border agreements which were then distributed over the internet.
Despite Vietnam's constitutional guarantees of a free press, in reality dissidents take considerable risks if they speak out.
Vietnam has toughened restrictions on the country's media, especially the internet.
In October the government announced that all websites based in Vietnam would need a licence to prevent "poisonous or harmful" information from threatening government security.
BBC News Service - November 8, 2002
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